Assess the role of Cavour and Mazzini in the process of Italian unification

Assess the role of Cavour and Mazzini in the process of Italian unification

Cavour and Mazzini had important roles towards Italian unification and by different achievements as well as downfalls, even though at times not intentionally, they contributed significantly and took part in it. Throughout this essay I will be analysing how both, Cavour and Mazzini, had an impact on the unification. Many will say that Cavour was the architect of Italian unification, although he took part on the evolving process his intentions was not to unify Italy, at most the North. Cavour differs from Mazzini in many distinctive points, the first one being that Cavour had an excellent political experience and as a politician he was very competent. Therefore with these talents he was able to make intelligent decision for Italy, as he was prime minister of Piedmont. Even though Italy had the King Victor Emmanuel great power stood in the hands of Cavour and with that he made the nation develop drastically. He installed better railways and farming methods, also opened trade with other states, Cavour had a great vision of an Indepent Italy and without an enhanced industrially speaking Italy it probably wouldn’t have been able to unify itself. These were the steps towards the unification and towards getting rid of Austrian influence, as they had so much of it inside Italy and one of Cavour’s main goals was to get rid of the power Austria had over them. The Crimean war came along and Cavour had pressure coming from Britain and France, as they needed more troops and the King Victor Emmanuel also wanted to go to war, afraid to lose his position as prime minister, Cavour tracks on to battle. Cavour knew that going to war would mean reassuring to Austria that they would not make trouble in Lombardy as the Austrians were so scared they would. However truthfully Cavour did not go to war on his will but it did contribute to his role as an efficient prime minister when Italians were able to defeat Russian troops. With the war however Cavour was unwise to believe that it would bring support from his now new allies in expulsion of Austrian influence on Italy. Although he failed to bring attention, at the Paris Peace Conference after the war in 1856, to the prestige of Piedmont-Sardinia and was extremely disappointed with the secret treaty of Britain, France and Austria, as he believed he needed recognition for joining them on the war, he was able to impress Napoleon III and get Italy to be treated as one of the great powers, which in the future contributed greatly for unification. Supporting Cavour Napoleon III entered Italy in the attempt to try and help them out. They both meet at Plombieres and with the treaty that shall be concluded where France would intervene when they went to war with Austria, Cavour was positively surprised as he saw what Napoleon III was willing to do for him and for Piedmontese domination – Cavour never spoke about the whole Italian unification. Cavour made great decisions bringing Napoleon III to Italy as without the French they wouldn’t have been able to beat the Austrians, only until France was obliged to make peace with Austria that Cavour intelligently knew that they wouldn’t be strong enough without France. Which led to the Treaty of Villafranca where Lombardy was given to Piedmont, this as we can see was a great accomplishment for Cavour as he was able to not only have a worthy fight with the Austrians but ended the war with Lombardy in his hands. The old monarchs are restored when Cavour resigns and this is period where we can identify that the people did not agree with the old monarchs back, therefore he returns, as there were having revolts against the monarchs and demands for unification with Piedmont from the North, slowly we can see how Italy is becoming unified and without Cavour it wouldn’t have gradually progressed. The North clearly sees how Piedmont has grown under Cavour’s watch and with it he comes back, hence after a plebiscite the unification was held. However Garibaldi steps in and when he captures Sicily and Naples he is beginning to threaten to invade Rome and Cavour knows that he cannot stop aggressively Garibaldi since he was such an icon for the Italians, but wanted to keep him in control as he was a threat to King Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi did want the unification of Italy, something that Cavour was not pursuing but added to the progress of it. With the attempt of trying to take the situation into control he invades the Papal States, also Cavour was afraid of foreign intervention something that he had finally been able to get rid of therefore he knew that he needed to contain the situation as correspondingly, if Garibaldi captured Rome as well he would grow even more amongst the people. Cavour knew that stopping Garibaldi would mean preventing a possible Rival Italian Republic in the South therefore he held a plebiscite and the South united with the North. Cavour as we can see was an extremely capable and intelligent politician, he did not however had the goal to unify the whole of Italy but increasing Piedmont power, excluding the foreign influence Austria had on them. His goals were accomplished. He had great abilities and fiercely pursued what he wanted; “with his fine sense of the possible this was time to stop” LCB Seaman says for when Cavour conquered Lombardy, we can see that he is however a really practical person and does not believe that the impossible can be accomplished something that someone like Garibaldi believed in. For him there are limits and with that I believe he ended up limiting himself and his visions. Mazzini on the other hand, as previously said, is many ways different from Cavour but he had a great impact on the early years of the Risorgimento. “For Mazzini, nationalism was the new religion for the modern world. Italy, he believed, had been called upon by God to become a nation.” Lucy Riall says, as we can see Mazzini had always envisioned a unified Italy while clearly Cavour hasn’t and with that on his own ways he tried to achieve unification. Mazzini had an incredible optimist view on things and that is probably why most of his risings ultimately failed. He believed too much on the people to revolutionise and fight for what he longs for. Had faith that with the united efforts of the Italian people they would be able to eliminate the Austrian influence and achieve a united nation. While Cavour had more rational and determined thoughts, Mazzini was inspired and had faith on the people, something that brought him down on his journey to try and unify Italy. With other methods like press campaign using secret newspapers he was able to call the attention of individuals, believing that through propaganda he would be able to educate a more revolutionary class of people. He devoted his life to Italy which is extremely inspirational and many times inspired others and that is how we can examine his commitment, although not successful but helpful, to the unification. The middle classes are usually the ones fighting most fiercely for a revolution and with that he believed in the support of the educated youth of the middle class, leading to the foundation of ‘Young Italy’. ‘Young Italy’ having its unique characteristic of accepting only young pupils had Mazzini wishing for the younger ones in power and through ‘Young Italy’ he showed the dedication for an independent and unified Italy. Although his devotion Mazzini failed tremendously when planning to invade Savoy, believing that it would cause revolts towards the king of Piedmont-Sardinia. He even planned for a constitutional government taking place but his conspiracy utterly failed and ‘Young Italy’ was discredited and ceased to perform a functional role in Italian politics. Mazzini had no political experience that brought him down on his visions as to what could possibly happen. Another great decline was his leadership on the Roman Republic that only lasted three months falling to French troops. It was a symbol of the unification movement but showed how poorly Mazzini was dealing with leadership inside a government. Consequently, we can see that Mazzini had a good range of limitations but he did contribute on his own ways to the inspiration of a possible unification. He had triumphs including the ‘Young Italy’ that accomplished 60,000 members, involving Garibaldi, which was someone that Mazzini was able to call the attention of. He was an inspiration to people, even though at times he failed, he showed how willing he was to fight for what he wanted and without him many of the risings wouldn’t have happened including the one in Sicily. What also limited him was that he wasn’t really worried with the peasants, who would have made a greater impact on his revolutionary movements and he ended up incapable to motivate extensive encouragement on other locations and ended up resorted to similar contained conspiracies as the Carbonari. Finally, we can evaluate the two roles during the process to Italian unification. Cavour and Mazzini are highly different in many aspects but without them the unification could have failed or taken longer to be accomplished. Even though Cavour did not have the same views and goals as Mazzini did of a united Italy, his accomplishments led to the unification of the North that influenced on the Italy we have today. Lastly, Mazzini was an incredible inspiration for others at the time and without him many people would not have been aware of what Italy could become.